B-Happy

Gonzalo Justiniano, the director of "B-Happy" shows he has an eye to capture ordinary people in their natural habitat, as he demonstrates with this feature. He works in a sort of episodic way as most of the scenes end in a black dissolve. This choppy way for the narrative is the only thing that doesn't make the film flow more freely, but as a character study, we are shown real people going through a life that has not been kind to them.

At the center of the story we see young Kathy. Living in the country side, this young woman must commute to her school every day. Her mother works for the local general store and her brother doesn't seem to be any help to either woman. The father, we find out, is in prison. We see both mother and daughter, who seems not to know her own father, pay him a visit in the Valparaiso jail where he is serving time.

When the father returns, he proves to be no help to his wife and Kathy. He goes back to his bad ways. The only positive thing for the young girl is her school. The kind teacher, who is married to the grocer, holds Kathy in high regard. The arrival of Chemo, the handsome young man who befriends Kathy works wonders for her. Suddenly she feels being wanted and accepted. Chemo's ambition is to go north to Arica, a town that seems to hold a special allure in his imagination.

Things don't go too well for Kathy. She witnesses her family disintegrate in front of her eyes. This is when reality sets in. It's clear that Kathy must leave town in order to get a better life, but bad breaks follow her when she arrives in Valparaiso. The only kind person to her is the transvestite that lives on a boat in the harbor, but alas, the friendship is not a lasting one. Finally we see as Kathy is at the bus station buying a ticket to Arica, where one is to expect she finds a better life.

Manuela Martelli makes an incredible Kathy. She is in almost every frame of the film. Her face registers all what is going inside herself. An excellent performance by this young actress. Also good, Eduardo Barril as the good for nothing father. Lorena Prieto is the mother. Juan Pablo Saez plays Nina and Ricardo Fernandez is Chemo, the young man who inspires Kathy to flee her surroundings.

If you are a lover of good performances and simple histories, this is a real must-see movie. It is a very sad history, but in the same time it is real history that maybe happens all days in different parts of the world. The promising debut of Manuela Martelli open a new era in latinamerica actresses, she supports almost perfect the movie on her shoulders with a unique charisma not seen in a chilean actress for many years. The movie fits perfect in Manuela, her baby face and sometimes inexpressive way of acting are the perfect combination for a terrible but powerful history. Her performance is brilliant, and i am sure that she will be a important cinestar very soon.

Some times I don't follow these foreign films that well but I have to say that Manuela really played the part. I would love to see her in an American film......she can speak the whole movie in Spanish if she wants I don't care. She will grow up to be a fine woman and actress if she should continue with acting. Maybe it's me alone but what ever age she is at the time of the film she can portray a very mature young lady in the film. I'm glad that HBO showed B-Happy and I was able to view it in it's entirety. I don't know the language that well but if there were no sub-titles I probably could have followed the film very easily and understood it.

Have you noticed how do simple movies had have a huge impact on the audience this last time? Just Think about ELEPHANT, for example. Plain story, wonderfully worked, acted, directed and filmed: nothing else needed. When a movie is well crafted, and the emotional intentions are correctly delivered to the audience, the most plain, stick man-acted, midi-sound-tracked story can receive a 20 minutes stand up ovation on Cannes. This is a fact, ans it is one of the most actually used formats on contemporary films. But, B-Happy isn't just plain, like a valley covered on green moisturized grass, is a mud filled down sloped crater. It is a awfully bad directed story, as told by a 15 year old kid who grades an F on grammar. The image is not clean: between scenes, you can tell when it's gonna be changed by noticing a slight brightening on the picture, which is really disturbing for the viewer's eye. Manuela Martelli proves once again, that her fame as a good actress is, in fact, mysterious: she just accomplishes with saying the lines and walking through the set. This film doesn't reach for the viewer's heart, it has no genuine feeling, and stimulates the unfortunate sensation that Chilean Film Industry goes nowhere. For real Feelings on a Chilean movie, Try Silvio Caiozzi, Boris Quercia, Gregory Cohen, just to name some.

I didn't know this film at all, simply happened to walk in on it at a local film festival. And I was pleasantly surprised. The story is too predictable, and in the end it really leaves me indifferent if anybody gets to go to this sea port in the north (I forgot the name, but everybody is always talking about it. I guess it must be a Chilean thing). But Manuela Martelli, the lead actress, was amazing. Very powerful in her passivity, and even more so when passion breaks through occasionally. And I nearly fell off my chair when she took off her clothes. I don't know how old she is, but quite young I guess, and this was her first film ever. So we may be in for a lot of future viewing pleasure. But I hope she'll be able to do more than Chilean films, because those are not easily seen in Europe outside of world film festivals.